Mercedes and Ferrari are at the head of the pack.
The 2019 Formula 1 racing season starts this weekend in Melbourne, Australia, and every journalistic outfit covering motorsport is making predictions about how the season will go.
For starters, new rules governing the sport will be put to the test, and four races–in Mexico, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States–risk losing spots on the racing calendar.
As for what happens on the track, Mercedes have dominated the world championship since they began the turbo-hybrid era back in 2014. Apart from Nico Rosberg’s win in 2016, Lewis Hamilton has won every world title since then, and he should be in contention for this season as well. He’s only one title shy of tying Michael Schumacher’s record.
The biggest problem isn’t that Hamilton will face challengers this season, it’s that the future of his teammate hangs in the balance. Valtteri Bottas had a terrible 2018, and test driver Esteban Ocon has the talent to take his place. The tension is now on the chance of having to worry about not only defending their title but losing it as well.
The only real threat to Mercedes is Ferrari. With brand-new team manager Mania Binotto on board, the squad should be closer together than ever. But the reality is that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has never won a championship with this team. And under stressful situations, he lost his chance for a driver’s title for two straight seasons by having bad races during the middle of the year, despite being ahead in the championship.
But now Vettel has a strong challenger in Monegasque Charles LeClerc, who could not only challenge Vettel individually but could also give the German more focus on what he must do.
If that happens, it might be the Prancing Horse that will take the title, not the Silver Arrows.
The third slot through the rest of the grid could be determined on what the Red Bull Racing team does with their new Honda engine. Reliability-wise, the engine has done well in pre-season tests in Spain, but the question could be how good is it against the others in terms of power.
It will be degrading to the Japanese if they get embarrassed by a team that has made their former engine suppliers from Renault. Honda is patient, though, a trait could be tested–unless the engine is good from the start. If it is, then they could take third in the constructor’s championship with Max Verstappen and his new teammate, Pierre Gasly.
Then there is Renault, who made a sneaky deal over the winter by taking Daniel Ricciardo away–when it looked like the Australian would sign again to partner Verstappen at the Austrian team. But the collision with the Dutchman last year in Azerbaijan, as well as more attention going to Verstappen, made Ricciardo decide that a change was in order. And with Nico Hulkenberg returning, the French team could give Red Bull payback if their newly rebuilt engine gets Renault success.
Haas has been around for only a short time, but the American team just lost out to Renault at the last second for fourth place in the constructor’s championship.
Both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen are back, and focus is on getting the bugs out on reliability. If all goes well, then this team will challenge for wins very soon.
If Haas was saved by Rich Energy, then Alfa Romeo did the same to the former Sauber team by taking it over fully. If Maserati would have negotiated more, then the same would have possibly happened for Haas. But for what didn’t work for Haas worked out for Sauber, and the Alfa Romeo squad now has former Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen on board to improve results. The minus side is that Antonio Giovinazzi returns as the second driver from his accident-prone days at Sauber. And if that pattern emerges anew, then Alfa won’t even get close to the sixth position.
For the others, teams like McLaren, Racing Point, Toro Rosso, and Williams, it will be a fight for the bottom.
All in all, it will be an interesting season–one that could sew roots for the future of the sport IF done correctly.
